Ex-Morton CEO's Estate Sells Custom Tudor Mansion In Lake Forest

LAKE FOREST, IL — A Tudor-style mansion custom built for the former CEO of Morton International sold Monday for nearly $2.78 million.

Located on a 2.67-acre parcel on North Mayflower Road and separated from Lake Michigan by a single property, the three-story brick home contains 11,000 square feet of living space.

It includes five bedrooms, four fireplaces, a three-story elevator, a pair of two-car garages, and a solid oak library with a wet bar, according to its listing. The partially finished basement features a 5,000-bottle wine cellar.

The property includes stone walkways and three outdoor patios, while one of its second-floor bedrooms opens onto a covered balcony.

The home's architect could not be determined, and the seller's broker Kim Shortsle — whose listing describes the home as a "time-honored estate that was built with today's buyer in mind" — has not responded to a request for more information.

Records show the home was built in 1991 and later owned by the late Charles and Nora Locke. The price they paid for the land or custom construction is unclear, but the home's listing indicates it was sold for $333,000 in 1998.

Mrs. Locke died in January 2009, and later that year property records show she sold the home for $4.5 million to a trust in the name of her husband, Charles S. Locke, the former chairman and chief executive officer of Chicago-based Morton International.

Mr. Locke started at Morton in 1975 and became CEO in 1980, according to an obituary. After he took the helm, the company sold its pharmaceutical division and bought an aerospace company to become Morton Thiokol. The company, which made the rocket boosters used in the space shuttle program, split in two in the late 1980s after its parts were blamed for the Challenger explosion.

In the early 1990s, with its focus on salt, specialty chemicals and air bags, Morton had an estimated 55 percent of the U.S. air bag market. That version of the conglomerate was split apart after Locke's retirement in 1994, and Morton Salt became a subsidiary of a German mining company in 2009.

Locke, a past chairman of the Museum of Science and Industry, died in August 2019, and the North Mayflower Road mansion was first listed by his estate in February 2020 with a $3.5 million asking price. The price was reduced to $2.94 million in June 2020, and it went under contract last month.

John and Patricia Poth, who last year sold another Mayflower Road home for $2.155 million, closed on the $2,779,500 purchase of the Locke Mansion on Monday

The home's estimated market value for taxing purposes has declined from nearly $5.5 million in 2018 to $2.7 million last year, bringing its assessed value more in line with its appraised value. Its annual property tax bill was about $70,000 last year.

• Address: 331 N. Mayflower Road, Lake Forest
• Built: 1993
• Lot Size: 2.67 acres
• Square Feet: 10,998
• Bedrooms: 5
• Bathrooms: 6 full, 2 half
• First Listed: $3.5 million in February 2020
• Closing Price: $2.78 million on March 15

Listing information originally appeared on realtor.com. For more information and photos, click here.